John P. Hale

John Parker Hale (31 March 1806-19 November 1873) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NH 4) from 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1845 (succeeding Ira Eastman) and a US Senator from 4 March 1847 to 3 March 1853 (succeeding Joseph Cilley and preceding Charles G. Atherton) and from 30 July 1855 to 3 March 1865 (succeeding Jared W. Williams and preceding Aaron H. Cragin).

Biography
John Parker Hale was born in Rochester, New Hampshire in 1806, and he became a lawyer in 1830. He served in the state legislature and as a district attorney before serving in the US House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in the US Senate from 1847 to 1853 and from 1855 to 1865; he rebelled against his state legislature's instructions to come out opposing the annexation of the Republic of Texas in 1845 due to his fears about the expansion of slavery. He became the first US Senator with an openly abolitionist platform, and he strongly opposed the Mexican-American War and the congressional tender of thanks to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor for their victories in the war. In 1850, he secured the abolition of flogging in the US Navy, and, in 1852, he was the Free Soil Party's unsuccessful presidential candidate. In 1855, he became a Republican, and he served as ambassador to Spain from 1865 to 1869. He died in Dover, New Hampshire in 1873.